Thank you for your support for our KickStarter campaign. It has run its course and though we didn’t achieve our funding goal we’ve established many connections in the south Florida musician’s community. DoWestPalm isn’t giving up on the DoWest Fest; we’ve gotten positive feedback from the community and we’re going to be looking at other funding sources (corporate, vendors) for a revamped festival — still local, original music — to be scheduled at a later date. We may use KickStarter again to support some ancillary costs for the festival.

One of the musicians I told about our project responded with, “Original Music in West Palm Beach? Don’t hold your breath.” Our Kickstarter results would seem to bear that out, but we’re convinced by our conversations with more positive members of the musical community that a festival structured like the one we’ve envisioned can work, once we get community support behind it.

I had a conversation with someone outside a club that, while designed with a great stage and concert lighting, has gone nearly exclusively to DJ’s. “Live music doesn’t work with the sound system here,” she said. “This crowd only wants DJ music,” “Live music won’t work here.”

A lot of what we get (in the music scene, or life) is what we encourage, what we market, what we support, even if it seems that we’re fighting uphill.

Every song spun by a DJ, every song covered by a cover band, was local, original music somewhere before it wound up on a platter or in a cover band’s repertoire. There’s no reason that West Palm Beach can’t birth great original music. It’ll take work, but we’re still going continue to push for it and support it.

And thanks again for your support! We’ll keep you updated on the future of the DoWest Fest!